The Final Emblem
The Final Emblem is the name of an alternate reality created by Escaflowne X, in which a number characters from the Fire Emblem series are main characters, as are characters from various manga, primarily Black Cat. This universe gets its name from a key item, "The Final Emblem", attached to which is a prophecy: "He who can claim the Emblem shall lead the universe into either one thousand years of Light, or one thousand years of Darkness." Plot The game starts with a Prologue, in which Sigurd observes what happens to be a shooting star falling towards his homeworld. In reality, however, the meteor is actually a mysterious entity, which impacts upon Sigurd's world, Judgral, and summons a massive horde of Heartless, soon destroying the world. The only survivors are Sigurd and two of his soldiers, Aira and Levin. When the trio arrives in Traverse Town, it's completely swarming with Heartless, and the three are quickly forced to engage the monsters. After a grueling battle, a bishop named Manfroy arrives and remarks that sending JENOVA had been a waste of time, since Judgral hadn't held the Final Emblem -- which was over a thousand times more powerful than the Fire Emblem. Manfroy then departs, leaving the three survivors of Judgral lost and confused, but they are quickly found by a magic-wielding swordsman calling himself Seifer. Seifer explains to them what he knows, and Sigurd embarks on a quest across the Worlds in order to vanquish the Lopt Sect, destroy JENOVA, and stop any further threats to innocent people. It's at this point that the story truly begins, and the chain of events is almost entirely up to the order in which the player clears the various Worlds (somewhat like Chain of Memories). List of Chapters #Traverse Town #??? #??? #??? #Heartless Incursion at Hollow Bastion #Port Royal Main Characters Sigurd Sigurd is the first Lord acquired in the game, and is one of the most powerful playable units. His Strength and HP are excellent, and is a master of the sword. His method of Class Change is similar to that of Roy in FE6: that is to say, after the completion of a certain map, Sigurd will acquire his ultimate weapon, the Tyrfing, and its power promotes him from a Lord into a "Master Lord". Sigurd is unable to use magic unless it's infused with his weaponry, but has sword techniques that compensate for this. Seifer Almasy Seifer Almasy is the second Lord acquired in the game, but although he's considered a Lord, technically, his Class is "Mercenary Mage". Like Sigurd, Seifer is also a skilled swordsman. His HP and Strength aren't as great as Sigurd's, but he is able to use Fire-Elemental magic, and also can summon his Guardian Force, the Death Express. Seifer starts out with a Steel Sword, but once acquiring his ultimate weapon, the Hyperion gunblade, is promoted to "Sorceress Knight", which is arguably more powerful than Sigurd's "Master Lord", due to great control of magic, despite somewhat inferior stats (barely enough to notice). Lyn Lyndis, better known by her nickname, Lyn, is the third Lord acquired in the main game. Like the other two Lords, Lyn's weapon of choice is a sword. However, while Seifer wields a longsword and Sigurd uses claymores and flamberges, Lyn fights with a katana. Her beginning weapon is the Mani Katti, and her ultimate Weapon is the Sol Katti. Like the other two Lords, she Class Changes upon acquiring the Sol Katti, her best weapon. Unlike Seifer and Sigurd, who still only use swords after promotion, Lyn can fight with bows once she promotes into "Blade Lord". In combat, she can switch between either weapon by pressing the "dodge" and "jump" commands at the same time. Lyn requires a certain distance between herself and her target to fight with bows; once the enemies are too close for bows, it's recommended to immediately switch back to swords. Syaoran Li Syaoran Li is a character from Tsubasa Resovoir Chronicle, and his class is "Magefighter", meaning that he is an expert both with magic and physical attacks. He is one of the few characters who generally fights without the use of a weapon, preferring to defeat his enemies through use of martial arts, which focus primarily on speed and kicks. He is also adept in Fire-Elemental magic, like Seifer, but his magic is much more powerful, the source being his kudan. He promotes into the fourth Lord. Train Heartnet Train Heartnet is a sweeper (bounty hunter), and was once the world's foremost assassin. He has been called the "ultimate gunman", and despite his power and reputation, he's quite a goofball. Train's alias was the "Black Cat", and one of his signature quotes is "I'm here to deliver some bad luck." Train isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but his accuracy and agility are beyond superhuman. In the Final Emblem continuity, he appears to be Tearju Lunatique's girlfriend. Eve Eve is an eleven-year-old girl who was raised to be the ultimate bioweapon. To this end, she was at some point injected with countless nanomachines, giving her incredible transformative powers. She is the clone of Tearju Lunatique, and is also an exceptionally avid reader. Antagonists The Lopt Sect Creed Diskenth Sephiroth Vanitas The Vanitas Sentiment -- although still referred to as Vanitas -- surprisingly, while technically an antagonist, has no qualms about working with Sigurd and his army. This incarnation of the Vanitas Sentiment is easily in the same league as the Terra Sentiment (better known as simply The Lingering Sentiment). However, it's later revealed that Vanitas is Darkness incarnate, and he acts entirely on his own intentions. The reason for his occasional cooperation with Sigurd's group is if doing so would further his as yet unrevealed goals. Minor Characters Aira Aira is a Myrmidon, and one of the three Judgral survivors in Sigurd's group. Her late nephew, Shanan, was next in line to the Kingdom of Isaac. Aira is one of the fastest of all playable characters, and although many units have greater strength than she does, her blinding speed and Limit, Meteor Sword, more than make up for it. Levin Dr. Tearju Lunatique Tearju Lunatique is an incredibly intelligent, although scatterbrained, scientist. While not a playable character, Tearju is still a critical character once she joins, as she provides extremely useful information, and can upgrade equipment. Eve is her clone, and she appears to be Train Heartnet's girlfriend. Mechanics The Final Emblem universe, unlike most Kingdom Hearts games, operates on a rather complicated battle and navigation system -- the simplest way to describe it would be a combination of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, Final Fantasy XIII, or perhaps similar to Dissidia - Final Fantasy -''. The battlefield is laid out in a way similar to a chessboard, or as if one were playing a tabletop RPG variant with a grid. Instead of controlling just one character, the player has access to multiple characters -- called "units" -- at a time. The only conditions for unit selection are that the player must bring at least one Lord to battle, and each map has a set limit to the number of units the player can use, which is anywhere from one to twelve, although after completing a map once, the unit cap is normally increased to twelve unless it's a special event. Gameplay is turn-based between the player and the CPU. During the player's turn, they can reposition all of their units and command them to heal with items, defend a certain area, or if there are no actions to be taken, simply wait. If an enemy is within a unit's "engagement" range (varies depending on the unit's Class and equipment), then another command becomes available: '''Engage'. This shifts the gameplay into battle mode, in which the engaging unit is pitted against a (normally) random selection of enemies native to that map. Combat, surprisingly, is probably most similar to Kingdom Hearts II: the unit can chain attack combos, use magic (depending on their class), and use items. The battle continues until either all enemies are destroyed, or the unit is defeated, in which case (again, unlike the Fire Emblem games) they are knocked unconscious, and are unavailable for the rest of the battle unless someone casts "Raise" or uses a Pheonix Down on them. Level System and Stats Each unit's combat ability is determined by the following stats: *HP (amount of damage that can be sustained while remaining conscious) *MP (amount of energy that can be used for spellcasting or special abilities) *Strength (this, after factoring in the weapon's stats/abilities, determines damage dealt with attacks) *Vitality (this, combined with equipment effects, determines physical damage sustained) *Magic (this, after factoring in the weapon's stats/abilities, determines damage dealt/healed with magic) *Resistance (this, combined with equipment effects, determines magic damage sustained) *Speed (this determines the unit's movement and attack speed) *Luck (determines many things, such as the chance of a Critical Hit, probability for item steals and drops, etc.) *Reach (distance, in grid spaces, where the unit can interact with other units. Determined by the equipped weapon) *Range (distance, in grid spaces, which the unit can move on the map. Is constant except during a Class Change) Each unit starts at a predetermined level, and the standard level cap is 40; HP cap varies depending on the class, but generally around 4000; MP cap is 1% of the HP cap. Luck cap is around 40-60; all other stats cannot improve beyond 80. However, after completion of an Event Battle, or through use of certain items, a unit can Class Change once they've reached Level 20. During a Class Change, the unit's level is reset to 1, enabling further stat growth, as well as the new level cap being 99; most or all stats increase by a predetermined amount, and all stat caps increase to 255, whereas HP cap becomes 9999, and MP cap becomes 999. During each level-up, there is a random chance for each stat to increase, normally by one, although some units are gauranteed at least one point of growth in a stat, and may sometimes get double or even triple that. HP increases by random amounts between 50~250, MP between 5~25. In order to get one's unit to have the highest possible stats, get them to LV40 before they Class Change, and then they'll have another 98 level-ups in which to improve. Category:Stories